Lubricating holder for a side wall tire valve inflating needle



1961 R. K. BOYER ET AL LUBRICATING HOLDER FOR A SIDE WALL TIRE VALVE INFLATING NEEDLE Filed April 16, 1959 Ill/1277711 RALPH K 50YER y HEN/Pr 1M Awa /v, JR.

ATTaR United States Patent LUBRICATING HOLDER FOR A SIDE WALL TIRE VALVE INFLATING NEEDLE Ralph K. Boyer, Cleveland, and Henry W. Krohn, Jr.,

North Olmsted, Ohio, assignors to The Dill Manufafiituring Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Filed Apr. 16, 1959, Ser. No. 806,885

2 Claims. (Cl. 137-231) This invention relates to a lubricating holder for a side wall tire valve inflating needle.

Many tires are provided with side wall inflating valves of the type that includes a rubber valve plug which is provided with a self-closing slit therethrough. Such tires are inflated by means of an inflating needle having an air passage therethrough which is connected to the chuck of an air line and the inflating needle is passed through the slit of the valve plug and into the interior of the tire. In order to facilitate the insertion of the inflating needle through the plug of the tire side wall valve it has been the practice to lubricate the needle by engaging the needle with a piece of felt or other absorbent material that is saturated with a suitable lubricating fluid. This lubricating practice is inconvenient and has been found inadequate. As a consequence the use of a suitable grease lubricant has been resorted to for the purpose stated.

The grease is placed in a container which is relatively large and is provided with a completely open end that is closed only by an annular flange on the inflating needle when the latter is not in use. However, when the needle is being used for tire inflating purposes and is withdrawn from the container, the contents of the latter are not restrained against emerging from the open end of the container. The greases suitable for the stated purpose are expensive and the filling of such container with the grease is relatively costly, particularly since a large proportion of the grease is not used in lubricating the needle and is wasted out of the open end of the container. Also the containers heretofore used for this purpose, due to their size and the large completely open end thereof, have made the lubricating of the needle a rather messy operation.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved and novel lubricating container for the side wall tire valve inflating needle and which container is so designed as to be economical in the amount of grease required to fill the same and to be easily used to lubricate the inflating needle without making the operation a messy or wasteful one.

A further object of the invention is to provide a lubricating container as referred to in the last mentioned object and which container by merely squeezing the same assures that grease will always be in contact with the inflating needle when the latter is positioned in the container.

A still further object is to provide a lubricating container of the character referred to which when the inflating needle is not being used for inflating purposes houses the needle and protects the user against contact with any of the grease.

Further and additional objects and advantages not hereinbefore specified will become apparent hereinafter during the detailed description of an imbodiment of the invention which is to follow and which embodiment is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein- Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view on an enlarged scale through the holder including the container, inflating 'ice needle and fountain pen type cover cap used when the inflating needle is not in use and .is housed in the container.

Fig. 2 is an exploded view of the parts shown in Fig. l and is drawn to actual size scale, the fountain pen type cover cap being shown partially in elevation and partially in section, the container being shown in section, and the inflating needle being shown in elevation, and

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view through a tire and the side wall valve therefor and illustrates the inflating needle inserted through the slit plug of the valve and connected to the chuck of an air line in the manner in which the inflating needle is used to inflate the tire.

The container comprises a relatively small cylindrical or capsule-like container or envelope 10 formed of a suitable elastic or resilient material such as natural or synthetic rubber or a plastic. As illustrative of the small size which the container 10 may take it will be noted from Fig. 2 that the actual size of said container is 1%" in length and approximately in diameter.

The open end of the container 10 mounts therein a resilient or elastic plug 11 which is integrated with the material of the container 10 in any well known manner, as for instance, by being pressed into the container to cause engagement between portions: of the container and plug. The outside diameter of the plug 11 is slightly greater than the inside diameter of the container, wherefore the end of the container containing the plug has an outside diameter slightly greater than the outside diameter of the remainder of the container. The outer endof the plug and of the container preferably are flush to provide a continuous plane surface.

The plug 11 closes the open end of the container 10 except for a central opening or hole 12 extending therethrough and of a diameter slightly smaller than the outside diameter of the inflating needle. The container 10 is filled with the grease indicated :at 13 and the grease due to its viscosity will not readily escape through the hole 12. The inflating needle proper is indicated at 14 and is provided with a bore 15 extending centrally through the inflating needle. The free end of the inflating needle 14 is provided with an air opening 16 and with one or more radial air openings 17, all of which openings communicate with the bore 15.

The inflating needle 14 at its end opposite to the end thereof having the openings 16 and 17 is provided with a portion 18 which is fixedly secured in a central counterbore formed in an end of an inflating stem 19. The portion 18 may be secured in the counterbore of the stem 19 by having a pressed fit therein or by any other suitable means. The inflating stem 19 at the end thereof containing the counterbore just referred to has an enlarged diameter circular knob portion 20 formed with a cylindrical seat 20 and cylindrical shoulder 20 for a purpose later to be explained.

The stem 19 is provided with a bore 21 communicating with said counterbore and said bore 15 in the needle 14 and extending through the stem. The bore 21 in the stem has a portion shaped and threaded to removably receive a conventional type of valve insides or core in dicated generally at 22 and well understood in the art. The valve stem 19 at the end containing the valve insides or core is externally threaded as indicated at 23 so an air chuck can be screwed onto the stem.

When the inflating needle is not in use a cover cap 24 similar to a fountain pen cap may be positioned over the container 10 with its open end tightly fitting the cylindrical seat 20 and abutting the circular shoulder 20 of the knob 20 of the stem 19 as clearly indicated in Fig. 1.

Since the opening 12 in the plug 11 of the container 10 is slightly smaller in diameter than the outside diameter of the inflating needle 14, said needle when inserted through the opening will be tightly gripped by the plug and effect a seal against the undesired emergence of any grease.

Also it will be noted that the flat circular end of the knob 20 of the valve stem 19 will tightly engage against the end of the container and the end of the plug 11 and hence will eifectively seal against the emergence of grease from the container to the exterior thereof and of the knob 20. Consequently when the inflating needle 14 is not in use and is housed in the container 10 as indicated in Fig. l and the cap 24 is in the position shown, all likelihood of grease emerging to the outside of the device is obviated and the user can safely carry the device without likelihood of grease coming in contact with his person or his clothes.

When it is desired to use the inflating needle to inflate a tire the cap 24 is removed and the needle is withdrawn from the container 10. The withdrawing of the needle produces a film of the grease thereon and causes a small amount of the grease to adhere to the end of the needle provided with the openings 16 and 17. Since the container is substantially closed by the plug no grease will escape therefrom after the needle has been withdrawn. The needle 14 is then passed through the self-closing slit in the plug 25 of a side wall valve 26 carried by a tire 27 which is to be inflated by pressure applied to the knob by the user. The grease on the tip of the needle and the film of grease on the length of the needle facilitates the insertion of the needle through the slit in the plug 25.

When the needle 14 is fully inserted, as indicated in Fig. 3, the openings 16 and 17 in the end of the needle are located within the tire. Then when the air chuck 28 of an air line 29 is positioned upon the threaded end 23 of the valve stem 19, air will pass through the bores 21 and 15 and into the tire to inflate the same as will be fully understood.

The continued use of the device will, of course, gradually diminish the quantity of grease 13 in the container 10 and this diminution of grease will tend to create voids in the grease and there will be a tendency for the grease to cavitate. However, these voids can readily be eliminated by merely squeezing the container 10 so that grease will always contact the needle 14 when the needle is inserted or withdrawn from the container until all of the grease has been utilized for the lubricating purpose. There is no escape or wastage of the expensive grease and since the container is relatively small in size only a minimum quantity of grease is required to fill the container and this minimum quantity of grease is sufficient to provide lubricant for the needle for many tire inflating operations.

Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described herein it will be understood that the invention is susceptible of various modifications and adaptations within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. A lubricating holder for a side wall tire valve inflating needle comprising a rigid steel member having a bore therethrough formed adjacent one end of said member to removably mount therein a valve core, said one end of said member being formed externally with means for connecting said one end to an air chuck of an air line, the opposite end of said member fixedly mounting an inflating needle extending therefrom in longitudinal extension of said member and having a bore therethrough communicating with the bore through said member, a hollow capsule-like container adapted to have lubricant placed therein and closed at one end and open at its opposite end, said container being formed of elastic material deformable when squeezed, and a plug of resilient material fixed in said open opposite end of said container and provided with a central opening therethrough of a diameter less than the diameter of said inflating needle but such that said needle can be forced through said opening and then will be gripped by said plug.

2. A lubricating holder as defined in claim 1 wherein said plug has its outer end flush with said opposite end of said container while said opposite end of said stem member has an enlarged knob providing on its end a fiat surface contacting the flush ends of said plug and said container.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,115,978 Kraft Nov. 3, 1914 2,026,933 Laney Jan. 7, 1936 2,400,722 Swan May 21, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS I 336,069 Great Britain Oct. 9, 1930 

